"I wait on tenterhooks to see if my ploy of last night will yield the desired outcome."Stephanie Laurens , The Elusive Bride

"Such as the fact that this Sevarin has been dangling after Miss Stone in earnest, and the village seems to be hanging on tenterhooks in expectation of a betrothel announcement."Judith McNaught , Whitney, My Love

Origin of tenterhooks

1470-1480

Tenterhooks usually occurs in the idiomatic phrase "on tenterhooks," from the type of hook that that hold cloth stretched on a tenter.